Turn Off Your Blinker

There I was, on Interstate 85 travelling to Durham from our home in Hillsborough, NC, and as I eased into the “comfort” of interstate driving (yes, I am kidding about that being comfortable) I found myself behind a car with the left turn blinker doing its thing … blinking. As I traveled mile after mile, the blinker kept on blinking and the driver of the car didn’t make any attempt to change lanes. After about ten miles, I took my exit… the car’s left blinker was still going as I lost sight. The driver had no idea that his blinker was on.

Now hold on just a second, I know it is not a big deal that some random guy was driving down the interstate without knowing his blinker was on, but I bring it up to make a point. I think this blinker incident is a pretty accurate portrayal of how many of us live our lives. By that I mean that many of us are not plugged-in and not fully engaged in our lives. We are just going through the motions and moving from one thing to the next while missing out on the rich experiences and joys that will show up if we simply tune in.

We can change that.

As you read this article, are you really ‘hearing’ these words or are you already thinking about what you have to do next? When you drove to work this morning, were you fully engaged in getting yourself there safely or were you running through your presentation or your conversation with your boss, or God forbid texting or emailing? As you sat in that meeting earlier today were you fully present and really listening to the conversation and soaking in the information, or were you formulating your “yes, but” responses and thinking about all the other work you needed to do after the meeting? When you had that conversation with your spouse a little while ago, were you fully present and engaged, or were you preoccupied with the long list of things you have to do? You get the picture.

You and I choose whether or not we plug-in to what we are doing. If we are doing something, anything at all, shouldn’t we be fully plugged-in to the experience? And if we choose not to plug-in, would it better if we just decide not to do it all? I think these are awfully important questions as we live this precious thing called our life.

How we do anything is how we do everything. The way we attend to the smallest of details in our lives is a great indicator of how we’ll attend to the big things in our lives. Are you plugged-in and engaged in your life?

Let’s plug-in and show up fully engaged in our lives. Start right now, and as you move to the next thing you do check out just how fully plugged-in you are. Surrender yourself to whatever you are doing and be open to all that is there … don’t miss a thing!

And by the way, turn off your blinker!

We are creating our lives…one decision at a time.

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